Rudolf Erich Raspe

Raspe, Rudolf Erich 

Born 1737 in Hanover; died 1794 in Muckross, Ireland. German writer.

In 1786, Raspe anonymously published an English translation of the adventures of Munchausen from the German collection The Merry Folks’ Companion (1781–83), to which he added episodes from English history. The stories can be traced back to folk, ancient Greek and Roman, and oriental anecdotes and center on the actual life of Baron K. F. Münchhausen, who served in the Russian Army and who Raspe claimed was the author of the book. The authorship of the book has never been conclusively established. The name “Munchausen” has come to mean a teller of tall tales.

WORKS

Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia, part 1. Oxford, 1786.
In Russian translation:
Udivitel’nye prikliucheniia, puteshestviia i voennye podvigi barona Miunkhgauzena. Petrograd-Moscow, 1923. (Translated from English and edited by K. Chukovskii.)

REFERENCES

Istoriia nemetskoi literatury, vol. 2. Moscow, 1963.
Carswell, J. The Prospector: Being the Life and Times of R. E. Raspe. London, 1950.